Deathstroke creator: Joe Manganiello is perfect for the role

Deathstroke's creator Marv Wolfman has said he's "confident" that Joe Manganiello is the right person for the role

Deathstroke's creator Marv Wolfman has said Joe Manganiello is the right person for the role.

The 40-year-old actor is set to take on the role of the fictional super-villain in the upcoming standalone movie 'The Batman', and has now received the seal of approval from Marv, who created the comic book character for DC Comics in 1980.

Posting a picture of the pair to his Facebook page, 70-year-old Marv wrote: "After a great lunch with Joe Manganiello, I feel more confident than ever that we got both the Slade Wilson the movies need and the Deathstroke great movies deserve."

Despite being the perfect person to take on Deathstroke, Joe recently revealed that he almost bagged the role of iconic superhero Superman instead, but filming commitments to his supernatural TV series 'True Blood' kept him from securing the role for 2013's 'Man of Steel'.

He said: "I met with Zack [Snyder, the movie's director]. I had an hour and a half long meeting with Zack, which is what was causing all the trouble ... I went ahead and met with casting, and then they all brought me over to meet Zack. I met the producers, I met with Jon Jashni and Thomas Tull at Legendary, I met everybody - everybody involved - and then finally sat down with Zack for an hour and a half and had a big conversation about the character and where it was going, et cetera. Then they called the 'True Blood' costume shop for my measurements to build my suit and that's what caused - that's when it stopped."

Joe isn't too disheartened about losing the role to Henry Cavill though, as he said he's "very excited" to be playing a villain instead.

He said previously: "I'm very excited. I just started kung fu, qigong and cutting with a live katana blade. That's been a lot of fun.

"I grew up rooting for the villain. These characters mean so much to so many people and there's a real opportunity to polarise an audience or have them walk away maybe not agreeing with my character but understanding why he does what he does. That's a really fun challenge."